GRD Journals | Global Research and Development Journal for Engineering | Recent Advances in Civil Engineering for Global

Sustainability | March 2016

e-ISSN: 2455-5703

Use of Granular Blast Furnace Slag in

Embankment Construction
1Ms.

Radha Gonawala 2Ms. Kanemozhe R. K. 3Dr. Rakesh Kumar 4Dr. Krupesh Chauhan
1
Research Scholar 2M. Tech Student 3,4Associate Professor
1,2,3,4
Department of Civil Engineering
1,2,3,4
SVNIT, Surat, Gujarat, India
Abstract

Huge quantities of blast furnace slag, is being generated in the steel plants during the extraction of iron from iron ores, and they
are normally dumped in and around the plant occupying a large land area apart from causing significant environmental problems.
Granular Blast Furnace Slag (GBFS) resembles to cohesion less granular material and is observed to contain mostly the sand-size
particles. Therefore, the industrial wastes like Granular Blast Furnace Slag (GBFS) if used as a substitute to good quality borrow
soils for base/ sub-base course in flexible pavements or as an embankment material, it may significantly decrease the construction
cost apart from increasing the sustainable development. This study is carried out to utilize the slag in embankment construction.
Being cohesion less material, it is mixed with local soil collect from Suvali near Eassar steel Ltd. As, the embankment/subgrade
having high strength, can resist to deformation and increase the stability of the pavement. If the parent soil does not have good
engineering properties can achieved with the use of additives/stabilizer. This additives/stabilizer is mixed with the soil materials
to get desired improvement. This study focus on mechanical stabilization of parent soil (CH type) using GBFS. The CBR tests are
conducted to check the four day soak strength of the soil mixed with the GBFS in different range (10 %, 15 % and 20 % by mass).
The results of these tests are comparing with soil stabilized with lime (3, 4 and 5 % by mass) and cement (0.5, 1 and 1.5 % by
mass) with different proportion.
Keyword- Granular Blast Furnace Slag, Embankment, Mechanical stabilization, Soil stabilization
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I. INTRODUCTION
The iron and steel slag that is generated as a byproduct of iron and steel manufacturing processes can be broadly categorized into
blast furnace slag and steel making slag. Blast furnace slag is recovered by melting separation from blast furnaces that produce
molten pig iron. It consists of non-ferrous components contained in the iron ore together with limestone as an auxiliary materials
and ash from coke. Depending on the cooling method used, it is classified either as air-cooled slag or granulated slag. Steel making
slag consists of converter slag (Basic oxygen furnace slag) that is generated by converter and electric arc furnace slag that is
generated during the electric arc furnace steel making process that uses steel-scrap as the raw material. In the present study, solid
waste which is generated as a by-product, during the melting process of mixed materials viz. steel scrap, sponge iron, pig iron,
ferro-silicon, silico-manganese and Al-shots is termed as granulated blast furnace slag. The waste material is neutral and
nonhazardous in nature as per chemical analysis report of Goa Pollution Control Board (Hazardous waste rules, 2008). The quantity
of generation of this slag is around 24 lacs MT per year from different steel industries in Goa (CRRI, 2010). Steel slag may be
used as a land fill cover liner (Inga, 2010). Pazhani and Jeyaraj (2010) studied feasibility of Granulated Blast Furnace slag (GBFS)
for production of high performance concrete. Use of steel slag in asphaltic concrete minimizes potential expansion and takes
advantage of the positive features in giving high stability, stripping resistant asphalt mixes with excellent skid resistance (Emery,
1994 and Mullick, 2005).
Presently, this granulated blast furnace slag is not utilized and is dumped on the costly land available near the plants. The
main objectives of the present study were to investigate mix proportion of soil stabilized with Lime (3, 4 and 5 %), cement (0.5,
1.0 and 1.5 %) and with GBFS (10, 15 and 20%) for the construction of embankment and to estimate the optimum mix for road
embankment. The industrial wastes can be utilized as construction material. The study is conducted to check the potential of the
GBFS as a highway construction material in embankment and subgrade to increase the stability of parent soil. The CBR tests are
conducted to check the effect of adding slag on the strength of the soil. The different content of slag are added in the soil to check
performance of the soil with slag (GBFS) and same results are compared with lime and cement stabilization.

II. MATERIAL
Soil in south Gujarat region mainly consists of intermediate to highly compressible clay. For study, soil was collected from Suvali
near to Surat city. The soil sample were taken from the different chainage of 3 Km road stretch.

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Use of Granular Blast Furnace Slag in Embankment Construction

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The collected sample was tested in the laboratory for the investigation of engineering properties like specific gravity of soil solids,
grain size distribution, Atterbergs limits, Swelling potential, soil classification, compaction characteristics and CBR, a summary
of which is presented in Table 1. The grain size analysis shows that there silt and clay content are maximum in the sample. The
soil classification results shows that the majority of the sample were CH type except at the chainage 1+100 (R) having SM type of
soil. The soil having CBR value below 2 expect SM having CBR value of 4.85.
Properties
coarser % 4.75 mm & above
0
sand % 0.075 mm to 4.75 mm
5
silt and clay content < 0.075 mm
95
LL %
61
PI %
41
IS classification
CH
FSI
75
Specific Gravity
2.55
MDD gm/cc
1.66
OM C %
17.5
CBR (soaked) %
1.86
Table 1: Engineering properties of soil

Fig. 1: Grain size distribution

The soil properties do not match with the minimum requirement of IRC 36. Most of the soil are of CH type having CBR
less than 2, so engineering properties of the soil need to be improved.
Granular Blast Furnace Slag (GBFS) is collected from Essar steel Ltd. Hazira, Surat. The GBFS production is
approximately 45,000 tonnes/month. The huge amount of steel slag is produce in the Essar steel. In laboratory the various test are
performed to check the suitability of the GBFS as a stabilizer material mixed with soil. The sieve analysis and specific gravity of
GBFS was carried out in the laboratory. The materials are non-plastic in nature.
In fig. 1, the result of sieve analysis are drawn for GBFS. This shows it is uniformly graded material and falls under
Grading Zone II of fine aggregates (IS: 383-1970). The specific gravity is 2.28 of GBFS. This material is used in mechanical
stabilization with CH soil to increase its engineering property for embankment construction.
The chemical composition of GBFS is shown in table 2. The result of chemical composition shows it contain 12.74%
silica and 32.29 % CaO content. It is found that aluminium content is maximum in the GBFS i.e. 42.44%.
Oxide
Composition, %
Aluminium oxide Al2O3
42.44
Calcium oxide CaO
32.29
Silica SiO2
12.74
Calcium Sulphate CaSO4
11.88
Magnesium Oxide MgO
7.95
Ferric oxide Fe2O3
1.934
Titanium Oxide TiO2
0.012
Free lime
0.0812
Ferrous Oxide
902mg/kg
Table 2: Chemical composition of GBFS

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Use of Granular Blast Furnace Slag in Embankment Construction

(GRDJE / CONFERENCE / RACEGS-2016 / 065)

III. LABORATORY INVESTIGATIONS

Construction of road embankment using slag alone would not be feasible as it is cohesion less material. Such embankments would
be highly erodible. Therefore, it was mixed with local soil in the range of 10 %, 15 % and 20 % by mass and the CBR test are
performed on the these mixes. The modified proctor tests were performing to find the OMC and MDD for particular mix.
Along with this mechanical stabilization, the soil is also stabilized with lime and cement. While stabilizing with lime, it
is added 3, 4 and 5 % by mass. For cement the adding proportion is 0.5 %, 1 % and 1.5 % by mass is taken.
The lime and cement are collected from local market. Ordinary Portland cement is used in the project work. The chemical
compost of the lime and cement are investigated. The chemical comports are shown in the table 3 and 4 for lime and cement
respectively.
The modified proctor tests were performing to find the OMC and MMD for the preparation of CBR mould for all mixes.
The CBR tests are performed according to the IS 2720 part 16. The soak CBR test is performed as it gives result of worst condition
for material under loading.
All results with different stabilizer are compared. The results of all tests can see in table 5 below. The graph showing the
comparison of different CBR values of the different stabilizer is prepared and can see in fig 2. The OMC is increased with increase
in percentage of GBFG in the soil. The MDD is having liner relation with. As the percentage of GBFS, lime and cement is increase
the MDD is also increases. This can be seen in Fig 3.5.The OMC is decreases with increase in percentage of the lime and give
good MDD with incremental CBR result. The CBR is increased as increase in percentage of GBFS. However, the CBR value is
lower as compare to the lime and similar to cement due to less binding properties. They give higher results as the percentage of is
increase. The CBR value is 8.54 for Soil +GBFS 20%, 9.52 for Soil + lime 5 % and it is 7.88 for Soil + cement 1.5 %.
Compound
Composition %
Calcium Hydroxide Ca(OH)2
72.88
Calcium Carbone CaCO3
10.215
Calcium Sulphate CaSO4
2.96
Magnesium Oxide MgO
3.21
Aluminium Oxide Al2O3
9.49
Ferric oxide Fe2O3
0.382
Silica SiO2
0.861
Excess moisture H2O
0.002
Table 3: Chemical composition of lime
Compound
Composition %
Insoluble residual
70.24
Loss on ignition
3.06
Ratio of % aluminium to that of iron oxide
1.50
Total sulphur content calculated as sulphuric anhydride SO3
2.247
Magnesia
0.231
Table 4: Chemical compound of cement
Sample
MDD g/cc OMC% CBR%
Soil+GBFS 10%

1.718

17.6

3.21

Soil+GBFS 15%

1.751

18.3

4.76

Soil+GBFS 20%

1.786

19

8.54

Soil+lime 3%

1.787

16.7

5.14

soil+lime 4%

1.826

16.6

7.32

Soil+lime 5%

1.864

13.2

9.52

Soil+cement 0.50%

1.797

13.9

4.38

soil+cement 1%

1.838

14.7

5.26

soil+cement1.5%
1.902
14.3
Table 5: Result of different mix

7.88

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Use of Granular Blast Furnace Slag in Embankment Construction

(GRDJE / CONFERENCE / RACEGS-2016 / 065)

Fig. 2: CBR for different mix

Fig. 3: MDD for different mix

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Soil + GBFS (10, 15 and 20 %), Soil + lime (3, 4, and 5 %) and Soil +cement (0.5, 1 and 1.5 %) are evaluated for their engineering
characteristics by laboratory investigations for embankment construction. Different laboratory tests carried out included: grain size
analysis, Atterberg limit test, Proctor compaction test, CBR test, aggregate impact value test, Abrasion test and moisture absorption
test. The brief conclusions are given below:
The soil is CH type of soil having CBR value lower than 2 except one chainage having SM soil with 4.85.
The soil having swelling more than 50 % so its required to stabilized.
GBFS give more than 17 gm/cc MDD and up to 8.54 CBR value when mixed with soil.
The lime is stabilizer as it reduces OMC and gives better MDD then cement and GBFS. The 9.52 CBR value is obtained when
adding 5 % lime in soil.
The GBFS mix gives comparative results with lime and cement. Its can be used as a stabilizer with soil having disagreeable
properties for construction.

REFERENCES
[1] Mullick, High performance concrete in India development, practices and standardization, Indian concrete journal, 2005,
pp 83-98.
[2] CRRI report, Feasibility study of steel slag in construction of embankment and pavement layers, Report prepared by Central
road research institute, New Delhi, 2010.
[3] Emery and John, Steel slag utilization in asphalt mixes, Proceeding of Canadian technical asphalt association, Canada, 1984.

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Use of Granular Blast Furnace Slag in Embankment Construction

(GRDJE / CONFERENCE / RACEGS-2016 / 065)

[4] Hazardous waste material rules, Ministry of Environment and Forest notification New Delhi. Published by Gazette of India,
2008.
[5] Herrmann, L. Andreas, S. Diener and L. Lind, Steel slag used in landfill cover liners: laboratory and field tests, Journal of
waste management, 2010, Vol. 28(12) pp 1114-1121.
[6] IRC: 6-2000, "Standard Specifications and Code of Practice for Road Bridges Section II Loads and Stresses," Published by
Indian Road Congress, New Delhi, India.
[7] IRC: 37-2001, "Guidelines for the Design of Flexible Pavement," Published by Indian Road Congress, New Delhi, India.
[8] K. Pazhani and R. Jeyaraj, Study on durability of high performance concrete with industrial wastes, Journal of applied
technologies and innovations, 2010, Vol. 2(2) pp 19-28.
[9] MORTH, Specifications for Road and Bridge Works, Published by Indian Road Congress, New Delhi, 2001.
[10] O.E.C.D, Use of waste materials and by-products in road construction, Organization for economic cooperation and
development, 1977, pp 68-69.

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